Monday, December 24, 2012

I'd joined the Catholic Church Choir in my parish since 1988....when I was still in the senior high school. At the moment, my parish was still very young and there was no youth community. The choir was builted to facilitate the young ages, so we could have at least one regular activity to meet and unite every week. At the moment, our choir didn't have a name. We simply was called St. Aloysius Gonzaga Youth Choir.

I had been through too many managerial changes while I was still an active member in this choir. And not just managerial. There was many changes in our members, too... Moving out of our parish because of the new job or living places, got married or even have a child.... Yes, our youth choir was no longer purely for single, unmarried youth. We became so solid, that marriage couldn't stop us getting together and training our voice.

This year, after suffering for a lack of active members for some time, the management finally was able to persuade the newer youth generation to join the choir which is now called AG Voice (AG is a shortened from Aloysius Gonzaga, our parish's name). These new members are averagely half of my age....makes me one of two eldest members in the choir...hehehe... The other one is also the long-time member like me. We're both the first generation of the choir....hehehe...

In the mid-year, the management conducted a change-over. At the time, I was almost a life-time songs coordinator. I handled the task since 1990.....22 years!!! So many times I asked each new management to find my replacement, but no one wanted the job....[sigh!]. In my point of view, it's a simple task. You just have to prepare and organize the songs for each assignment, make sure there's enough copies for each member, and file those songs.

Anyway, this time I insisted the management to also replace me. I just started my own business which for a while only runs in the evenings, makes me super-duper tired to attend any choir practices. Of course, I didn't say my real reason to them. I just said that it really, really didn't fair to left me behind one more time....hehehe.. So, finally there is one new blood who agree to takeover my task...hurrrrayyy...!!! And started the heavy job for me to compile all of those songs in my house in containers, ready to ship out to its new home.

Slowly but sure, I started to backout from the choir. I didn't join their weekend retreat out of town. Didn't attend wedding choirs on Saturdays. And finally skipped practices. At first, I only told them that I had something to do that evening. One week became two weeks, became one month and finally I decided not to join in this Christmas duty. Success!!!!!

Finally, I'm able to leave the choir, with no regrets at all. Someone is finally doing my old task. The new generation of choir has a good numbers of member and good voice quality...more than mine, I think....:)... One nice accomplishment of mine on 2012....:)

Each time closing to the end of every year, I notice that there is an increasing number of people passing away. Either because of age or illness or natural disaster. We - that's my family - call it as The Calculation of Year End. When my own Dad passes away on November 2009, we remembered it and quietly took a humour in it.

This year, however, I received two sad news from my friends who lost their fathers. Last week, Stardust sent me a sms that her father passed away suddenly. This morning I read Mbak Fida's blog about the passing away of his father after being hospitalized for some time. So close to Christmas.....a uniquely family time...I can only hope that they will be strong enough to keep on moving and live, because I know they are strong persons....

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

I rarely surrender to any illness. Well, mostly I only suffer from an allergic to any weather-changes, or gastroenteritis. And I always try to get ahead from any signs of illness. Why? Because I have too many things to be done....no time to get sick...hihihi....so exaggerated, huh? hihihi....

Anyway, there's one aspect of illness I hate at the most. It's called FEVER.

I know that fever is actually a good sign. It means my antibody is active and fight hard to kill any germs that attack my body. Trouble is, while I could stay up and fully functional although I suffer from a bad cough for 3 months, once I'm struck by a fever, I lost all of energy I have in a mere of hour. And it won't stop there....

Once I get a fever, it means I need to take a medicine to help me get over it soon and back to my feet (and my daily activities....hihihi....). Oh, sure it will help me getting through the fever attack. I could sleep. The soreness all over my body will disappear. And in a mere hours, my temperature will get down to normal again....When the fever leaves my body, it also take away my strength. As soon as I could stand still and no longer feel happy just stay in bed, I will immediately back to work. While I'm very eager to depart, twenty minutes driving to the office will rob my entire energy, and I will reach the office feeling very weak and shaking. Well, that's not a big problem....I could steal a nap whenever I need....hihihi...and there's hot drink I could take to boost my energy.The big problem after I got a fever is sleeping. While I could sleep during the fever attack, the first night afterwards I will unable to sleep. Why? Because I get nightmare. In that dream, I always feel like being watched or chased. But I can't runaway, sometimes I even feel like sucked up into emptiness. Sometimes I succeed to runaway very fast, till I fly away like a balloon (now I know how the loose-balloon feels...hihihi...). It wakes me up and keeps recurring no matter how strong I will my brain to close and stop the nightmares. So I will feel unrefreshed next morning. Added to the very limited energy I have, it's quite a hard struggle to stay focus during the working hours and driving home afterwards. How long will it go on? Usually till the next weekend, when I have time enough to rest my mind and sleep all day. See, one day fever, and I need a week to convalescence.. A wasting time indeed....hihihi....